Sep 5, 2011 | Innovation, Management, Operations, Strategy
Googles purchase of Motorola poses an interesting management challenge.
To date, Google has been a producer of software, an intellectually intensive activity that can be accomplished anywhere the brain is located.
Manufacturing is a different beast.
Suddenly you have factories, supply chains, unions, fragmented regulatory regimes covering OH&S, environment, waste, and a myriad of other stuff that sometimes seems designed to ensure you drown in red tape. What a difference!
This will stretch Google’s leadership and culture, as any manufacturing executive will tell you, it is not as easy as it looks.
Sep 4, 2011 | Change, Innovation
Gordon Moore first promulgated his now well know law in an “Electronics” magazine in 1965, that the number of transistors that could be packed onto a standard chip would double every year for at least 10 years. Moore updated his forecasts in a 1975 presentation but the general direction has held true now for over 50 years.
In 1955 when the transistor was first commercialised, they cost $5 each, now they cost billionths of a cent each, an astonishing change.
If this development trajectory were to be repeated, even 100th of it, the dreams of politicians trying to sell the notion that a carbon tax will lead to an explosion of technical development in renewable energy, will be realized. Perhaps this is not as far fetched as the notion in 1965 that the number of transistors on a chip on would double every year?
Sep 2, 2011 | Branding, Communication, Marketing
The link here is to the Social Media Examiner site, probably the best commentator on things “social media” amongst the thousands out there, offering 9 reasons why content does not get shared, emerging from some useful research.
Thing is, as I read the list, it is not just about the leverage offered by social media, it is about marketing generally.
All the 9 reasons can also explain why your brand has little relevance to a consumer, refuses to “stick” despite the huge advertising budget, and just gets missed by busy consumers.
Make sure you have a look at the Volkswagen ad in the post, sure to bring a smile to the face of anyone with a heart, it also ranks in the top 10 viral ads, according to the number of on-line views.
Sep 1, 2011 | Innovation
Not my normal patch, writing about cookbooks, but this is a exception because of the input if Nathan Myhrvold, a tech entrepreneur with an astonishing range of interests, and who has changed the digital innovation landscape with his patent trolling activities.
Modernist Cuisine is a multi volume cookbook, but is far more than just another a cookbook by a chef trying to get his head on TV, this is an examination of the technology and science of cooking, lavishly and innovatively photographed. Have a look at the trailer on the website, not just another cookbook.
Aug 31, 2011 | Innovation, Marketing, Personal Rant
The retirement of Steve Jobs last week has prompted a blizzard of comment, even a cartoon, from my favorite Tom Fishburne, and at the risk of just adding to it, it seems appropriate to simply state that a bloke I have never met, who has never even heard of me, about whom I know nothing more than has been published over the 30 years of his extraordinary career, has changed the way my life is lived. His commencement speech at Stanford is now one of the web classics, with millions of views.
We all have ipods, or their substitutes, connected phones have revolutionised the way we communicate, tablet computing has just been changed forever, and my kids insist on a Mac at double the price of a technically comparable PC, and that is not to mention the huge impact the original Toy Story movie had during Job’s forced sabbatical from Apple.
It will be truly fascinating to observe the transition of power at Apple, can the innovation and marketing machine he built survive in its current form without Jobs?
